Happy Friday to you all! And a Bank Holiday Weekend too if you reading this in the UK! An extra day of reading! Wahoo!!! And the forecast is sounding rather promising too so am looking forward, finally, to some nice summer sunshine to enjoy! Best go and set up my favourite reading spot in the garden and get prepared!
A little worried this week as I’ve slowed down on the reading front – eek!! I am hoping this isn’t the start of a slump but I’ve just not been able to settle with anything the past few days and so my reading progress has tailed right off – just at the time when the extra review copies have started to pile up! Oh dear!! I’m sure normal service will resume soon….. keep everything crossed for me!
So I still managed to finish 3 books this week so yay me!! Please click on the book title if you’d like to see my GoodReads review!
BOOKS FINISHED
Death Plays A Part by Vivian Conroy – 4 stars
Wesley; The story of a remarkable owl by Stacey O’Brien – 4 stars
Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis – 2 stars
BOOK HAUL
Had some interesting new additions to my ‘collection’ this week! 2 were sent from the publishers for review and the other 2 were purchases I made myself… cos I really needed some new reading material! 😉
Rivals of the Republic by Annelise Freisenbruch – thanks to Duckworth Overlook
IN THE ABSENCE OF HONOURABLE MEN, WHO WILL DEFEND ROME?
The body of a Vestal Virgin is dragged out of the River Tiber…
A senator bleeds to death in his bath…
And as the authorities turn a blind eye, Hortensia, daughter of the capital’s most celebrated orator, feels compelled to investigate a trail of murders that lead to the dark heart of Rome.
Flying in the face of her husband’s and father’s attempts to protect her, rebelling against the constraints imposed upon her sex, she is drawn ever deeper into the corrupt underworld that lurks in the shadows cast by the city’s all-powerful elite.
When fires begin to rage in the slums and more key witnesses are silenced, only one man can save Hortensia from becoming the next victim of a conspiracy to destroy the Republic: Lucrio, the damaged ex-gladiator to whom she already owes her life. Then the secrets of his own tragic past threaten to subsume them both…
The Lustre of Lost Things by Sophie Chen Keller – courtesy of Nudge Books
In this story for readers of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Man Called Ove, when all seems lost, he finds what matters most.
Walter Lavender Jr. is a master of finding. A wearer of high-tops. A maker of croissants. A son keeping vigil, twelve years counting.
But he wouldn’t be able to tell you. Silenced by his motor speech disorder, Walter’s life gets lonely. Fortunately, he has The Lavenders—his mother’s enchanted dessert shop, where marzipan dragons breathe actual fire. He also has a knack for tracking down any missing thing—except for his lost father.
So when the Book at the root of the bakery’s magic vanishes, Walter, accompanied by his overweight golden retriever, journeys through New York City to find it—along the way encountering an unforgettable cast of lost souls.
Steeped in nostalgic wonder, The Luster of Lost Things explores the depths of our capacity for kindness and our ability to heal. A lyrical meditation on why we become lost and how we are found, from the bright, broken heart of a boy who knows where to look for everyone but himself.
There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult – I’ve started collecting Persephone Books so am slowly building up my collection thanks to the monthly book club and can’t wait to discover these amazing stories!
This 1944 novel is about memory loss and is the only book we know of, apart from Iris about Iris Murdoch (and arguably There Were No Windows is wittier and more profound), on this subject. Based on the last years of the writer Violet Hunt, a once-glamorous woman living in Kensington during the Blitz who is now losing her memory, the novel’s three ‘acts’ describe with insight, humour and compassion what happens to ‘Claire Temple’ in her last months. ‘A quite extraordinary book,’ was the verdict of Cressida Connolly in the Spectator, ‘unflinchingly, blackly funny, brilliantly observed and terrifying.’ And because Claire Temple is an unrepentant snob, ‘the novel gives a sly account of the end of an entire way of life.’
Secrets of the Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford – Amazon UK 99p
In 1860, Alexander Ferguson, a newly ordained vicar and amateur evolutionary scientist, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the remote Scottish island of Harris. He hopes to uncover the truth behind the legend of the selkies—mermaids or seal people who have been sighted off the north of Scotland for centuries. He has a more personal motive, too; family legend states that Alexander is descended from seal men. As he struggles to be the good pastor he was called to be, his maid Moira faces the terrible eviction of her family by Lord Marstone, whose family owns the island. Their time on the island will irrevocably change the course of both their lives, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after they are gone.
It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. Their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child’s fragile legs are fused together—a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? To heal her own demons, Ruth feels she must discover the secrets of her new home—but the answers to her questions may lie in her own traumatic past. The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford is a sweeping tale of hope and redemption and a study of how we heal ourselves by discovering our histories.
CURRENTLY READING
Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier – started reading this on Cosy Reading Night last Saturday and it has me under its’ spell so hoping to finish it very soon! How have I taken so long to discover Daphne Du Maurier?!
Rubies in the Roses by Vivian Conroy – am reading this for a forthcoming blog tour and loving the second in the Cornish Castle Mystery series!
Books and Me! 
I finished two books this week which is quite good for me! 😁
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yay!! i think you deserve some new books as a reward!! 😉 that’s always my excuse anyway!! x
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😂 I like it! x
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